Thinking like a toddler

I just turned 40 a few months ago … This turn was not easy, I admit, and I often wonder about what it means to “grow old”: is it a total process, or is it only physical? Are we losing creativity as we get older or is it possible to create throughout our lives?

When I heard the words of Paul Lindley during the lecture series organized by the hotel Martinhal Cascais, I loved the idea that aging is first a state of mind, a less capacity to welcome the world with wonder through our five senses …

Paul Lindley suggests thatwe should be three years old again to rediscover faculties that have fallen asleep over time and which, however, have been essential at the time of our fundamental learnings. According to him, this (re) discovery would enable us not only to remain young in our heads, but also to be more creative and innovative … I adhere 100% to his thoughts!

This is what I would like to talk about here, because summer is always a time not only to recharge oneself, but also to think about ourselves 😉

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In his book Little Wins,the huge power of thinking like a toddler, Paul Lindley proposes four stages, associated directly with fundamental learning:

Learning how to smile

Learning how to walk

Learn how to speak

Learn how to play

These tips are to be taken both for the private sphere and for the professional sphere.

LEARNING HOW TO SMILE

Behind, it is a whole strategy of opening up to the world and to others to gain more self-confidence: to listen, to seek simplicity rather than complexity, to find creative stratégies, other ways , to challenge the received ideas …

Crédit photo : Sweet Cabane

LEARNING HOW TO WALK

Essential attributes? Obstinacy, the ability to fall and get up … the absence of fear …

Learning to walk is therefore learning to start and carry a project that grows even if you encounter obstacles … Success is at the end;)!

In short, we have a lot to learn from toddlers in this area, especially when we set up a professional project, but also when difficulties arise within the couple or family …

LEARNING HOW TO SPEAK

To do this, you must first LISTEN, then learn how to express yourself and finally make yourself heard. All this is essential for a project to succeed! A real survival guide for anyone wishing to start up a project! … But also a more general way of welcoming the world and being present. Be marvelled, be surprised, … Rather than regret ‘the good old days’ …

LEARNING HOW TO PLAY

Probably the most antinomical stage of the adult state … Paul Linley suggests to us to learn to occupy the space, to be involved in what we do and to be in constant relation with the others to create and go further …. Just as the little child does.